Drive Thru Mastectomies and Politics

A few years ago I received an email forwarded from a friend asking me to sign a petition to notify my congress representatives about my feelings about a bill that requires insurance companies to cover a minimum 48-hour stay in the hospital for women who have had mastectomies.

Even its moniker makes me shudder: Drive Through Mastectomy

I read the information, signed the petition, and quite honestly, didn’t think about it again. The notice had arrived before my misdiagnosis and resulting advocacy work, so I just wasn’t concerned about it — because I live in New York state, and as I understood it, there is a state law that covers that already. So it slipped right off my radar.

Imagine my surprise when the same request arrived in my email this week! A major “HUH?” So I linked to the information on the Lifetime TV’s website:

Turns out the bill never passed — and has now been reintroduced. It states that insurance companies must cover a 48 hour stay in the hospital for any woman who has just had a mastectomy. It doesn’t say she must stay — it just gives her and her doctor the option.